| We all love the TV horror hosts, but unless you roost in their broadcasting area, you're just out of luck. Now, a new horror host (and hostess) are about to go cable. It'll all happen when... |
| By Greg Martin (NOTE: Couch potato film fans, rejoice! The B-Movie Channel is going on line soon, and it will bring you a classic fright film feature each Friday night—Friday Fright, hosted by Ravena, the Goddess of Stonehenge, who has awakened from a thousand year spell, together with her trusted companion, Anok. Greg Martin, a radio program manager who protrays Anok, raised this horror host from the dead and gave it local cable life in the Tri-Cities, Washington…now, the whole country is slated to experience Friday Fright when the B-Movie Channel revives it this Spring. The B-Movie Channel is a three-year-old California-based network that offers genre movies, such as Westerns and horror films from the 1930s to 1990s in a limited format to satellite viewers. Now, the B-Movie Channel is taking aim at cable television systems with around-the-clock programming. Greg took a breather in his feverish schedule to pen a few words about his mutant brainchild for HORROR-WOOD.)
Pizza...check! Root Beer...check! Popcorn...check! It's another Friday night and the local creature feature is about to begin. How many of us that grew up in the Fifties and Sixties spent our Friday or Saturday nights glued to the TV? Everything seemed to revolve around this one event. It was good clean fun and something I missed after growing up. My only son was growing up with late night offerings like Dateline...and the Shopping Channel. Something had to be done. The kernel of an idea started forming in the back of my head. The idea was easy enough. Get a bunch of old movies, slap on some goofy make-up and act silly between breaks in the movies. But after getting turned down by 3 local TV stations because of "network obligations," it became clear...it's not that easy! Enter the local cable company and a glimmer of hope. Now for the host(s) idea. Mad scientist. Been done. Ghoulish specter. Oh yeah, been done. Girl in skimpy outfit…been done, but hey! Hard to pass up. A little more brainstorming and we had the premise.
Friday Fright with Ravena the Goddess of Stonehenge and her faithful companion Anok! Ravena is a princess of questionable origin, while Anok was her not quite bright dwarf nursemaid turned protector. Ravena has been asleep for over a thousand years. A spell was cast on her by an evil sorceress. Now she awakes!!! (Can this get any cornier? Just wait…) So now to the talent search. Do you know that people in a small town think you’re a bit lecherous when you say you’re doing a talent search? And of course we were looking for a tall, beautiful, buxom blonde! So where did this Lana Turner wanna be come from? A local burger joint waiting tables. My wife pointed her out and said "There she is!" Low and behold…indeed, there was what we had spent the last 3 months looking for. 5 feet, 8 inches of teased blonde hair, a winning smile and of course curves where they ought to be. She had a way of making all her customers smile and feel good. Not a lick of acting experience but a ton of charm and the brass to give it a try. To answer the question on everyone’s mind, YES! She thought I was hitting on her when I said I was going to make her a star…and would you please take your clothes off and put on this skimpy little outfit? Right! Now we had our Ravena and I would be Anok! Costumes and sets still needed to be built, scripts written, sponsorships sold and a source for the classic old movies found. But in the end, the lights came up and the director yelled, "Action!" Ain’t life sweet?
For 26 weeks, we shot 2 episodes every other week. In between, we’d read script ideas and do a few public appearances in character. Still the word was not spreading as fast as we wanted and after the initial 26 weeks, we figured while the shows ran in reruns, we’d beat the streets for more sponsors and more viewership. Then came the big blow. An ownership change at the cable company and we’re out the door! While I was licking my wounds and wondering what to do a fellow sci-fi/horror fanatic mentioned seeing a channel on his satellite dish from time to time called the B-Movie Channel. It was only on sporadically but he’d managed to catch an email address. It was what we needed! Somewhere we fit in and it just so happened, they planning to go 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!! Ain’t life grand! At this writing, the B-Movie Channel is putting the finishing touches on its programming line-up and adding more and more cable companies every day. I can’t tell you the level of excitement and anticipation we all have waiting for the launch date tentatively scheduled for mid-March. Really though. Putting together a show like Friday Fright is quite exciting and a ton of work. But when you get to sit back and watch…it’s really cool! I hope that you’ll all rush right out and call your local cable company. Tell them you want the B-Movie Channel so you can watch Friday Fright! Stop by our website to see a sample and order one of our great T-shirts. We will be looking forward to seeing you on Friday nights! |
| Thanks, Anok, err, Greg! We'll keep watching
the TV listings...and you keep watching that Ravena! Cheers! Article copyright Greg Martin |
A list of fright flicks that will receive the Friday Fright
treatment: